Rodney Hide on democracy and the left’s failure to accept it

The New Zealand Herald’s John Roughan wrote this week: “The amazing thing about democracy, when you stop to think about, is that it makes the right decision far more often than not.”

I pick on Mr Roughan because he is normally so sage and sober. He is not a paid-up member of the screaming lefty, greenie, PC, I’m outraged/offended, how-could-anyone-be-as-stupid-as-you brigade.

No, he is a considered, conservative commentator. But Donald Trump’s candidacy and election has caused even him to unhinge and lose perspective and objectivity.

The absurdity of his comment must completely escape him. I am at a loss to understand how that could possibly be.

There’s no “right” decision for democracy. There’s just a result. It’s a process with an outcome that we broadly sign up to as a mechanism of dumping governments without having to cut throats. It doesn’t prevent the abuse of government power but it does stop it getting too out of line. That’s it.

If there was a right decision – and Mr Roughan was privy to it – we could dispense with elections entirely. We could just consult Mr Roughan for the right result. It would save much angst and much expense.

His “democracy-normally-gives-the-right-result” comment wasn’t a throw away line but the opening sentence of his column. It’s a display of hubris of the highest order.

Such media hubris has been all-too evident throughout Mr Trump’s campaign and following his election; it has also carried through to the New Zealand media.

It’s not a bias but an arrogance, with the media not just having a slant but a full-on position of who should win and who should lose.

It’s extraordinary.

And watch the media luvvies on Twitter all howling, and still howling at the result. Each morning though, the sun comes up depsite all their predicts of globle catastrophe stemming from one election.

The week before Mr Trump’s election Mr Roughan used his column to advise, “Use your heads, America.” The unbecoming and out-of-character arrogance is gobsmacking.

Again, I pick on Mr Roughan because he’s normally such a wise old head.

And just in case the American people missed his message the Herald on election day ran a full front page with a stylised stencil portrait of Mr Trump in the manner of Shepard Fairey’s 2008 “Hope” poster of Barack Obama. The headline screamed, “Dear America … No You Can’t!”

I can’t fathom the hubris. I can’t imagine being presumptive enough to tell Americans how to vote. I can’t imagine thinking they would take the slightest notice.

But there you have it. That’s the worldwide media in 2016. I would expect it from young journalists, who have been brought up to believe their opinions are important and that someone having Mr Trump’s views is evil. I would never have expected it from Mr Roughan.

Maybe it’s not a new thing. Maybe it’s always been there. Maybe it’s taken the modern pressure on the media plus Donald Trump’s candidacy and election to expose it. Either way, it’s not pretty. And it’s not nice.

I think John Roughan is spending too much time at the office drinking plenty of liberal tears that must be filling all the water coolers at NZME.